I said in a previous review that the slow pace of this season’s episodes has been a good thing. For this episode, though, the total opposite was true. Oh boy, was I ever bored by this episode. Part of the reason for this was probably because much of the episode chose to focus on Lori agonizing over whether or not to terminate her pregnancy, and the eventual reveal to Rick that she had been sleeping with Shane. I’m glad that Rick wasn’t totally surprised by this, and I’m glad that it’s out in the open so the show can stop trying to make me care about it, but I really don’t care about either storyline. I don’t know if it’s Sarah Wayne Callies’ acting, or just the writing for her, but Lori is one of the least likeable characters on the show so I really didn’t care about her agonizing over the pregnancy. And really, the whole “how can we bring a child into this screwed up world’ back and forth she had with Rick is a pretty standard trope in post-apocalyptic stories and was not pulled off with any sort of interesting twist.
Not much else happened either. Sophia is still missing, Carl wants to learn how to shoot, and Glenn learns that Herschel is keeping zombified members of his family in the barn in the hopes that he might be able to cure them someday. As we saw from Dr. Jenner’s presentation in the CDC labs last season, it seems to me like becoming a zombie is a one way trip. I fully expect Herschel’s misguided humanitarian impulse to backfire on him, destroy the idyllic farmhouse world that he’s created for his family, and send Rick and the crew out wandering the countryside again.
Crazy Violence Level: 5 of 10
Comments: Only one zombie death, I think?
Notable Highlights:
* I remember Glenn beating a zombie to death and thinking at the time: “Wow, this is pretty gruesome. I have to remember this.” But of course, I forgot exactly what happened because of all the other forgettable stuff that surrounded this brief moment of excitement. I am a bad, bad TV reviewer.
John is a TV blogger for Raked and an Entertainment and Sports contributor here at The TMR Zoo. You can follow him on Twitter at @raked_jc
